The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to medical imaging systems, and more particularly to radiation detection systems.
In nuclear medicine (NM) imaging, such as single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) or positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, radiopharmaceuticals are administered internally to a patient. Detectors (e.g., gamma cameras), typically installed on a gantry, capture the radiation emitted by the radiopharmaceuticals and this information is used, by a computer, to form images. The NM images primarily show physiological function of, for example, the patient or a portion of the patient being imaged.
An NM imaging system may be configured as a multi-head imaging system having several individual detectors distributed about the gantry. Each detector may pivot or sweep to provide a range over which the detector may acquire information that is larger than a stationary field of view of the detector. Focus-based acquisition may improve image quality in a focused region, but image quality in an out-of-focus region may be significantly degraded, which may pose problems in clinical protocols that use both regions for clinical analysis and diagnosis.